Bunga bunga no more? Berlusconi, 76, still married but now engaged to 27-year-old

The 74-year-old former Italian prime minister and underage sex-haver is planning to marry a woman 49 years his junior, who is totally in this for love and not for money and power.

In addition to his underage escapades, Berlusconi held what he called “bunga bunga” parties (a.k.a. orgies) in his mansion — including some with Karima el-Mahroug, an underage belly dancer known as “Ruby the Heart Stealer,” who accused him of paying her for sex.

Berlusconi announced Sunday on “Domenica Live,” a talk show on his Canale 5 TV station, that he is engaged to Francesca Pascale. At 27, she is very young but entirely legal, so there’s that. Berlusconi is still legally married to his second wife, according to London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, although the two are separated. (You nabbed a real catch there, Francesca!)

“Finally I feel less lonely,” Berlusconi said. “I am engaged to a Neapolitan, it’s official. She is 27 years old, with very solid values, beautiful on the outside and even more beautiful on the inside.”

The word Berlusconi used to describe his engagement is an Italian adjective whose English equivalent is reportedly closer to “going steady.” But Italian media seem persuaded that they hear wedding bells, with one newspaper calling Pascale Italy’s new “first lady.”

“She is very close to me, she loves me very much and I feel the same,” Berlusconi continued. “My daughter Marina appreciates her and loves her very much too.” (His daughter Marina, by the way, is 19 years older than his fiancée.)

This will be Berlusconi’s third marriage — once he actually gets divorced from his second wife, of course.

Berlusconi was charged with abusing his office for trying to cover up the “Ruby the Heart Stealer” scandal in 2010. He stepped down in November 2011 but announced last week that he plans to run for office for the third time.

Berlusconi denied the charges in court and again during the televised interview, calling the trial an “incredible machination.”

“It was an excuse to put in place a giant operation for defamation against me and against the Italian government, including on an international level,” he said.

In October 2012, the former prime minister was convicted of tax evasion and ordered to pay 10 million Euros. The court also ruled that he may not hold public office — a punishment that he is expected to appeal, and probably escape from, since it’s Italy and everything.

The announcement is most certainly not timed to soften his image from bunga bunga party-thrower to honest man just in time for his 2013 run for prime minister.